Why do kids illnesses always strike when its the holiday?

Oh no not again – why is it that kids illnesses KNOW when its the holiday, and then come and bite you on the arse?

Every couple of weeks since mid-December one of the three children has been ill and off school.

There has been this headache and temperature virus going around and around. In fact, I am writing this at 4.25am while I am up with my oldest trying to get his temperature down.

Thermometers are great things but they do instil a slight feeling of panic when the reading is 42°C!

So the fan is on, we are dosing with Calpol and Nurofen alternately, but as parents it is worrying. There is not a lot we can do except be ready to clear up, dish out TLC, be ready with the medicine, and rearrange work or any other plans we had.

You may find too that with some aspects of kids being ill, one parent handles it better than another. That is fine, but the support of one another can be really important and a great comfort to the child.

We are quite used to high temperatures in this house; our oldest had febrile convulsions in his first year, although that is more about how quickly a temperature is rising than how high it is. He also used to go slightly blue with a temperature, (he did that again today) but feels really cold. We got the hang of dealing with that quickly. We cool him down by stripping off in front of a fan as quickly as possible.

But it can be exhausting – up for most of the night, re- arranging everything, juggling the other family members and, the thing I find a real challenge, is that you may not speak to another adult all day and since I work predominantly from home I do the nursing.

If you do get offers of help accept them.

As Mums, in particular, we feel we need to manage and cope with whatever life throws our way, but there are times when it’s OK to accept, or even to ask for help either from friends or relatives. These favours can always be returned another time.

It’s now the next day, we survived the night and temperature is down to a better level; so here’s hoping for a speedy recovery.

How do you mange the kids illnesses in your house? Who does what? And do you get the troups in?